Secular evolution and a non-evolving black-hole-to-galaxy mass ratio in the last 7 Gyr

We present new constraints on the ratio of black hole (BH) mass to total galaxy stellar mass at 0.3 < z < 0.9 for a sample of 32 type-1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) from the XMM-COSMOS survey covering the range M BH ~ 107.2 - 8.7 M sun. Virial M BH estimates based on Hβ are available from the COSMOS Magellan/IMACS survey. We use high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging to decompose the light of each type-1 AGN and host galaxy, and employ a specially built mass-to-light ratio to estimate the stellar masses (M *). The M BH-M * ratio shows a zero offset with respect to the local relation for galactic bulge masses, and we also find no evolution in the mass ratio M BH/M *vprop(1 + z)0.02 ± 0.34 up to z ~ 0.9. Interestingly, at the high-M BH end there is a positive offset from the z = 0 relation, which can be fully explained by a mass function bias with a cosmic scatter of σμ = 0.3, reaffirming that the intrinsic distribution is consistent with zero evolution. From our results we conclude that since z ~ 0.9 no substantial addition of stellar mass is required: the decline in star formation rates and merger activity at z < 1 support this scenario. Nevertheless, given that a significant fraction of these galaxies show a disk component, their bulges are indeed undermassive. This is a direct indication that for the last 7 Gyr the only essential mechanism required for these galaxies to obey the z = 0 relation is a redistribution of stellar mass to the bulge, likely driven by secular processes, i.e., internal instabilities and minor merging. Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA Inc., under NASA Contract NAS 5-26555; the XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and NASA; and on data collected at the Magellan Telescope, which is operated by the Carnegie Observatories